Hopefully we'll be hearing a lot from "triple threat" talent composer,
lyricist, and book writer Timothy Huang in the next few years. Though his
new musical And the Earth Moved, a funny yet touching show about
cultural identity and the search for meaning in life, is a work that still
needs some polishing and trimming, Huang brings a distinctive new voice to
musical theater that makes you sit up and pay attention.

Though some critics will undoubtedly describe in profuse detail that And
the Earth Moved is an "Asian American musical" as most of the show's
cast, creators, and plot elements are Asian American, it's more important to
recognize the significant contribution that this show makes to the
ever-widening and inclusive definition of what constitutes the
American musical. Indeed, Huang's show with its quirky sense of humor
and odd-ball yet moving characters often reminded me of William Finn's work,
particularly A New Brain, more than say Rodgers and Hammerstein's now
dated musical Flower Drum Song.

Huang's show centers on Will Chen (Thomas C. Kouo), a young Taiwanese
American jingle writer living in New York, who is frustrated by his nagging
Taiwanese parents (played to hilarious perfection by Erin Quill and Orville
Mendoza). Not particularly happy that Will has a white girlfriend, Jane (the
golden-throated Lisa Howard), his parents continually pester him via
telephone about his love life, his lack of a good career, and the fact that
he has yet to make arrangements for their upcoming Thanksgiving visit.
Shortly after one such phone call, Will learns that a deadly earthquake has
struck Taiwan, and suddenly his life is thrown into disarray as he wonders
if his parents are still alive.

So begins the show's main adventure as Will wanders the streets of New York
(smartly evoked with slide projections by Jennifer Varbalow) searching for
meaning and stability amid his life's chaotic uncertainty. Will soon finds
himself lost, not just physically, but emotionally as well, trying to figure
out how to reconcile his Asian roots with his American identity. Meeting up
with a mysterious young woman named Jenny (Constance Wu), the two find
themselves involved in a series of wacky encounters: they get held up at gun
point in a Korean grocery store by a man in a Barney costume, mobbed by a
Chinese gospel choir in Harlem, and in the show's funniest scene, trapped in
Wan Fat Chow's, a Chinese restaurant known bizarrely for its "Clown Waiters"
and "Sesame Chicken."

Insofar as this show is partially about making peace with one's cultural
roots and identity, Huang uses his terrific sense of humor to send up a bevy
of Asian stereotypes from the Korean grocery store clerk, cleverly named
Dill Gent Lee (a crowd-pleasing Steven Eng), to hard-to-understand, impolite
Chinese waiters. Similarly, while at Wan Fat Chow's, Will and Jenny get
caught up in a satiric wedding ceremony (staged as nightclub floor-show
entertainment) in which a crazy M. Butterfly-like drag queen (Brian
Cooper), complete with a cracking fan straight out of the recent revival of
Flower Drum Song, leads the cast in an immensely entertaining number
that pokes fun at Asian gender and sexual stereotypes from musical theater.
Though the sequence doesn't really advance the story much, it's such an
over-the-top inventive production number as staged by director/choreographer
Nina Zoie Lam, who parodies shows including Chicago and Miss
Saigon, that you don't really care how irrelevant it is.

Huang knows how to land the jokes, poking fun at Caucasians and Asians
alike, but he also knows how to write with lyrical beauty. His songs reveal
poignant sentiments such as Will's sense of childhood nostalgia and longing
that he expresses in "My Monkey and Me," the beautiful story song that opens
act two. The pieces of And the Earth Moved, though, are significantly
greater than the whole. Clearly talent abounds in the show's cast and
creative team, but the overall structure of the show is uneven, often
dragging too much, particularly in the soul-searching ballad-heavy second
act. Indeed, the central conceit of a character looking for meaning in his
life is too non-specific and flimsy of a plot to sufficiently hold the show
together. This two-hour musical with an intermission could easily be trimmed
to a tight and lean hour and a half one act.

With one exception, Huang's show is well served by a talented cast (and how
refreshing to see Asian American actors being given funny and juicy roles
for once!) The musical is custom-built for character actors, and the large
cast is packed with individuals who have a knack for comedy. Kristi Tomooka
is riotous as a TV reporter who continually interrupts her news reports to
comment on the foibles of Will's life. As Sister Deborah, the lead gospel
singer of The First Pentecostal Church of Harlem, Melanie May Po shakes the
roof with her impressive and soulful vocals. Constance Wu offers a sweet and
engaging performance as Jenny, Will's vagabond sidekick. If there is one
link weak in the equation, sadly it is Thomas Kouo as leading man Will.
Though his voice and acting are decent enough, Kouo lacks the intensity and
gravitas that this major role requires. Though able to carry off the
ranginess of Huang's music, Kouo's voice was often not loud enough to be
heard over the show's single piano.

And the Earth Moved might not be the most perfectly written show, but
it offers so many delights for its audience that it is definitely worth
seeing. Hopefully Huang's show will encourage other minority musical theater
creators to write, bringing new perspectives and stories to the very white
world of musical theater.